RE: [Rails-devel] Tile orientations

[Erik V. <eri...@hc...>]

> > Yes, tile #45. I have chosen the one that appears in the PS18XX tile
> > set for 1830, as I think we should align with the PBEM community.
> 
> I would think mirroring what is in the actual game is more 
> appropriate. 
> For example, in some cases the PS18XX tiles are totally 
> unrelated to the 
> orienation used in the original game (in some cases even the 
> tile numbers, 
> such as 18MEX, since they were developed before the game was 
> published).

I agree with that, but I would not go as far as preconfiguring
different versions of the same tile in one game.
The base orientation will be defined in TileSet.xml,
and if people want to change the orientations defined there
to match their own game box, that's fine, but not our concern.

If a certain game has a consistent tile set of tile numbers, 
we'll use that. If not, we'll follow some common usage, e.g.
Steve Thomas's PBEM tile sets.
 
> > Yes, that is my approach too. The "database" now is Tiles.xml.
> > I have just uploaded new versions of the tile XML files.
> >
> > However, after a quick check of your database and some of 
> the games you
> > have published I now see, that you use Marco's tile 
> orientations rather than
> > the ones
> > that I found in the 1830 game box and in the PS18XX set for 1830.
> 
> I assume you are referring to the web tile images?  Those 
> have not been 
> regenerated yet.  I am about 80% done with merging all the 
> different tile 
> sources into my database (kept in Informix using the schema I posted 
> here earlier).  Too many things going on, but it will get 
> finished one day 
> and then I will regenerate all the tile images.

OK. It would be great if we could leverage your database
to provide tile sets tailored to each separate game,
but we'll have to see how that works out.

> > We clearly must make a choice which orientation set we will use.
> 
> I think the first question is what is the goal -- if it is to exactly 
> mirror what came in the box, there are a lot of complicating 
> issues such 
> as using multiple orientations in the same game and 
> (especially in 182x) 
> different print runs having different orientations.  If the 
> goal is to 
> support PBEM using only electronic maps, then choosing one 
> orientation is 
> best, even if you have to make clear that players using 
> physical boards 
> will have to carefully watch orientations -- otherwise, you 
> have to find a 
> way to disambiguate different tiles which have the same number but 
> different orientations.

Yes, see above.
The simple solution is one standard tile set for all games.
Better, but perhaps less easy to create, would be a separate set 
for each individual game.

> > But IMO displaying tile (and revenue) numbers at all
> > will only be worth while if we either succeed in 
> implementing SVC graphics,
> > or go for a separate gif file for each tile orientation (otherwise
> > the number reading directions will rotate with the tile).
> > And if we succeed in scaling the numbers such that these 
> are readable
> > and still do not overwhelm the map. I have my doubts on this aspect.
> 
> The way I intended to handle it was to automatically leave 
> out components 
> of the tile image depending on the size being drawn.  That 
> way, if you 
> have a sufficiently large screen area or are zoomed in to the 
> map, you 
> will see all the detail available in the tile.  If you zoom 
> out, you see 
> only the detail that is useful at that resolution.  I haven't 
> downloaded 
> and built Rails since the tile code has been working, so I don't know 
> exactly how you have implemented this.

We now have gif files with tiny numbers that are not readable at all.
I have just created a new TileDesigner file with double size numbers,
we'll see how that works after Brett has had time to create gifs out of that
file.

Erik.